Title: Keeper of the Black Stones (Stone Ends)
Author: PT McHugh
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Glass House Press
ISBN: 0981676804
Magical instruments that allow time travel. The fate of the world, and time itself. A madman seeking to use it all for his own evil purposes.
And one fourteen-year-old boy, who must gather his friends, jump to Medieval England, and set things right, if he’s to save the world. Will Jason Evans learn what he needs to know in time? Will he be able to stop his nemesis, and save the world?
Or will he fail, and take the world – and all its residents – with him?
Description:
Awkward in his own skin, shy around girls and worried about anything and everything, Jason Evans is just like a million other teenage boys in high school, with one very large exception: he has been given a gift that allows him to jump through time. A set of stones has fallen into his lap that gives him access to any place – and any time – that he chooses. But along with that gift comes the responsibility of stopping the man who is using those very stones to travel through time and change history for his own purposes. A man who is now holding Jasons grandfather hostage, and threatening the worlds very existence. Jumping through time with his best friend and body guard, Jason must enter the world of Medieval England, learn its customs, navigate unimaginable danger, and help Henry VII win the Battle of Bosworth, in the name of finding his grandfather, rescuing a beautiful girl from the clutches of a corrupt church, and destroying the one man who pledges to turn history inside out.
Review:
P.T. McHugh has joined the ranks of authors Kerr, Colfer, Delaney, and Stroud in writing an enthralling fantasy tale in the Keeper of the Black Stones. McHugh spins an adventurous tale of time travel, fantasy, science, magic, and history, which is bound to become a classic fantasy adventure read.
Within the first sentences of the prologue, McHugh starts to weave an engaging adventure tale that travels through the annals of history. The historical tale centers on The War of The Roses and the accession of Henry Tudor to the English throne. Could the outcome of this pivotal historic event, if altered, change the course of history as it is already written?
McHugh uses elements of time travel and fantasy, intermingled with history, to tell a tale of family and relationships. The time travel aspect of the story is laid out within the first page of the book and is a straight forward premise which doesn’t require a physics degree to understand.
The characters McHugh writes are well crafted, and I as a reader came to care deeply about them. As I stated before, this is a book about relationships, and they are solidly built ones and not perfect by far.
The main character is Jason Evans, and the story is mainly told from his point of view (a third person narrative does take place in some chapters). Jason lives with his grandfather “Doc,” as his parents were killed in a tragic traffic accident three years prior. Jason is tall, smart, and pure ordinary vanilla, or so he thinks.
Doc, Jason’s grandfather, is an elegant, savvy physics professor by the name of Dr. Richard Evans, who makes frequent trips out of town to various scientific conferences where cell coverage and Internet access is non-existent. His suspicious nature is not lost on his grandson. Jason is a good kid but not perfect; so when his grandfather’s journal falls into his lap, what is any fourteen almost fifteen-year-old guy going to do? Read the journal, of course.
Paul is Jason’s life-long best friend. Their relationship is a solid one, considering they are both fourteen-year-old boys and more like brothers as Paul is a fixture in Doc and Jason’s home. These two friends have an easy-going camaraderie but not without the normal growing pains puberty throws in. Add a new “substitute teacher” at the boys’ school, one who would make a Navy Seal look like a wimp, plus a beautiful girl in the character of the quick-witted and feisty Tatiana, and you have one fun team that needs to save the past.
There would be no need for time travel to save history if there wasn’t a nefarious character involved. In the Keeper of the Black Stones that role is filled by the character of Nicholas Fleming, a man with an agenda. One that if not stopped could change the course of history. McHugh writes this character as a confident villain, willing to do anything to attain his goals in reshaping our collective past. If time is fluid as described in the premise of the book, then this man has no qualms about potentially destroying billions of lives, past and present, for his own self-serving goals.
What makes this book such an enjoyable read is that the adventure and danger doesn’t take place in one time or place. The modern day scenes are blended seamlessly with the story that is taking place in the past. The historical figures are written as real people, not the cardboard cut outs that we have come to think of as history. McHugh brings history alive in his tales of adventure.
P.S. Anyone who uses Race Banon of Johnny Quest fame in a sentence is on author to watch. COOLEST MALE LEAD EVER.
P.P.S. Time Paradox. But we won’t delve too deep into that. *Wink*
BUY LINKS
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PT McHugh didn’t start out as a storyteller. He was, however, born into a family of that encouraged imagination. He became a fan of history in school and then went to college to become a construction engineer, to build a world of straight lines, angles, and equations.
He was just as surprised as everyone else when he realized that he believed in magic, and might just know the secret of how to jump through time. Since then, he’s been researching the possibility and learning everything he can about history. Just in case the opportunity arises.
PT was born and raised in New Hampshire and currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, two daughters, and a dog named Bob, daring to dream of alternate worlds and cheering for his beloved New England Patriots.
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